Page 63 of Weak Side

The humor was there, but barely. It was meant to be a joke, but my hand tingled with the thought of touching that peach of an ass that she had.Fuck, get it together.

“You would not,” she whispered, letting her arms drop down my back in defeat as I entered the training room. The only light was the glow from the ice bath in the center of the floor, and I stalked toward it with an even deeper smirk planted on my face.

“I would,” I bit back. “Wanna test me?”

There was a pause on her end, and I stopped breathing for a moment.Does she like the thought of that? Because I sure do.

“No.”

I chuckled as I slid her down the front of my body, hooking my hand underneath her knee so she didn’t put pressure on her foot. Her hands landed on my chest, and I was certain she could feel the racing of my heart, which was a quick reminder that my little roommate-slash-fake-girlfriend was completely embedding herself into my life, whether it was all a ruse or not.

“Was I that heavy?” She frowned, taking my hand from behind her leg. “Your heart is flying. And here I thought hockey players had good stamina.”

“You’re not heavy. That’s not why my heart is flying, Claire.”Don’t say it, Theo. Don’t say it. Do no—“And I have excellent stamina.” I paused, trying to make the next part of my sentence sound like I was joking, but deep down, I wasn’t. “Want me to show you?”

The look of surprise was followed by her reddened cheeks, and it was obvious she knew that I wasn’t joking. She looked down at the ice bath, refusing to meet my eye. “That’s not a good idea. Earlier was…”Great.

Neither one of us finished her sentence because she was right. It wasn’t a good idea. I knew that last night, as I stared down at her lying in my arms while she wore my jersey. There was something about her having my last name on her back that made me wonder if my world could revolve around something other than hockey...like her.

“Get in.” My demand was a little harsh, and although I wasn’t going to dig into my internal feelings any longer, I knew why I was agitated all of a sudden, and it wasn’t her fault. It was mine.

“All the way?” Claire put some space between us and walked closer to the ice bath. She dipped her toe inside before quickly pulling it back. “No!”

I rolled my eyes. “Just your foot, then. It’s good for inflammation and will improve recovery.”

She hesitated but finally sat down on the floor and put her foot in the ice water, hissing between her perfectly straight teeth. A chill raked through her body, so I ran into the locker room and grabbed my extra hoodie that was in my locker and jogged back to drape it over her shoulders, but when I got back into the training room, I nearly tripped.

“What are you doing?” I asked, drowning in confusion. All I could see was the top of Claire’s shoulders and the thin straps of her bra resting along pale skin and her hollow cheeks from the intense chill of ice surrounding her.

Her teeth were chattering when she answered me, so I grew closer to hear her better. “My whole body hurts. I–I–I’ve been pr-practicing a lot. Maybe I-I-I”—she blew out a shaky breath—“won’t be so sore after.”

“Jesus,” I mumbled. I slowly sank down and sat beside her, putting my knees up so I could rest my forearms over them. “You really are just as driven as I am, Bryant.” I shook out my messy brown hair.

“I take–take that as-s a compliment.” I caught her cheeky smile, and we sat in silence for the rest of the ten minutes that I allowed her to stay in the ice bath. The second the timer went off, I quickly reached in, grabbed her biceps, and pulled her to her feet in one single motion.

I scanned her wet body and did a triple-take at the way my world stopped spinning for a second. She wore nothing but a simple black bra and those damn panties that showed entirely too much. Water droplets raced down in between her cleavage, and I was confident in saying that it was the first time I’d ever been jealous of a small bead of liquid.

I pulled the hoodie down over her body to dry her off, and the laugh that bubbled out of her mouth confused me. Nothing was funny to me because I was about to lose my mind.

“Is it weird that…I feel good?” She looked over at the ice bath in amazement and then back to me with wide eyes full of mirth and high spirits.

I forced a smile onto my face. “No, it’s supposed to do that. Why do you think we do it?”

She laughed again, still shivering as she stood in front of me. “I’ve never really analyzed the way jocks’ brains work—especially not someone like Ford.”

I threw my head back for a second and let out a loud laugh. “Come on, let’s get you warmed up before you head back to the dorms. My practice starts soon, and you can’t be here.” I gathered her clothes in my hand and shot her a look so she wouldn’t protest as I held out my arms. She quickly jumped into them and wrapped her wet legs around my waist before burying her head into the crook of my neck. Her warm breath coated the side of my neck, and my grip on her wet legs grew harder as I tried to pull myself back to reality—again.

“Flip the light on,” I said as we walked into the showers. I placed her on the bench and walked over to them, turning the one in the far back on while keeping my eye on the time. “You get five minutes in lukewarm water. Then, we gotta get you back to the dorms before Coach finds you here.”

“Am I not allowed to be here?” she asked, standing up on shaky legs. She pulled my hoodie over her head, and I averted my gaze to the lockers behind her. I’d bite my fist if she wasn’t staring at me. I’d do anything to keep myself from thinking the thoughts I was currently having.

“No,” I answered. “I’m breaking all my rules for you, Bryant.”

I spun around and walked out of the showers so I didn’t do what I wanted to do this morning, which was to slip into a fantasy world that smelled of her shampoo and was full of inappropriate thoughts of the girl who was my fake girlfriend.

Before I walked out of the showers, I spun around. “Hey, don’t change the temp—”

Fuck. Me.

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